Delighting in God, Treatise · Part 2 (2 of 3)

Delighting in God · Treatise · Part 2 (2 of 3)

p. 2382. What is your present temper, in it self considered? You do love God and delight in him, How do you make it appear? wherein doth that friendly and dutiful affection towards him evidence it self? Sure love and hatred are not all one with you. Whereby would you discern your hatred towards one you did most flatly and peremptorily disaffect? You would dislike the thoughts of him, hate his memory, cast him out of your thoughts: Do you not the same way shew your disaffection to God? Do you not find, that so a wicked man (his enemy) is branded and distinguisht,Psal. 10. 4.Ps 10:4 God is not in all his thoughts? Are not they who shall be turned into Hell described thus,Psal. 9. 17.Ps 9:17 The people that forget God; that is, who willingly and of choice forget him, or from the habitual inclination of their hearts? And is not that your case? What could hinder you to remember him, if you were so disposed?

Yea, But you often forget your friends, or those at least to whom you are sure you bear no ill will; and what friend would expect to be always in your thoughts? It's answered, But you disrelish not the remembrance of a Friend; Do you p. 239not the thoughts of God? You do not think on your absent Friends while no present occasion occurs, to bring them to your remembrance: But is God absent? Is he far from any one of us? Or have you not daily before your eyes, things enough to bring him to mind; while his glorious works surround you, and you live, move, and have your being in him, and your breath is in his hand? Have you that dependence on any Friend? Are you under so much obligation to any? You often do not think on Friends with whom you have no opportunity to converse; Have you no opportunity to converse with Him? Your Friends can lay no such Law upon you, to have them much in your thoughts. It argues a depraved inclination, not to do herein what you ought and are bound to do. You cannot by the exercise of your thoughts obtain the presence of a Friend; you might a most comfortable Divine presence.

And what though you think not of many to whom you bear no ill will, nor have any converse with many such; Is it enough to bear no ill will to God? Will that suffice you to delighting in him? Are you no more concerned to mind God and converse with him, than with the man you never knew, or had to do with? Your unconversableness with God, and unmindfulness of him, can proceed from nothing but ill will, who daily offers himself to your converse, who seeks and invites your acquaintaince, would have you inwardly know him, and lead your lives with him, p. 240Why is it that you do not so, but that you like not to retain him in your knowledg? And that this is the sense and language of your hearts towards him, Depart from us, we desire not the knowledg of thy ways; It can proceed from nothing but ill will and a disagreeable temper, that you shun the converse of one that seeks yours; that you will take no notice of one that often offers himself to your view, one that meets you at every turn, and aims to draw your eye, and cannot gain a look. When this is your deportment towards God, that he passes by you and you perceive him not; he compasses you about behind and before and is acquainted with all your ways, and with him and his ways you will have no acquaintance, remain alienated from the life of God, and as without him in the world; Is not this downright enmity? Or can this deportment agree with habitual and the frequent actual delight in God which is requir'd?

Again, Would you not be justly taken to disaffect one whose temper is ungrateful, whose disposition and way is unpleasing to you? Is it not thus with you Godward? When you hear of the purity and holiness of his Nature, his abhorrency of all wickedness, and how detestable to him every thing is that is impure, and that he will not endure it; Do not your hearts regret this quality (as we must conceive of it) in the Nature of God? Which yet, because it is his very Nature, doth so much the more certainly p. 241infer, that a dislike of it cannot but include disaffection to himself, and that habitual and constant, since his whole way of dealing with men, and the course of his government over the world, do (and shall more discernibly) savour of it; Do they not wish him hereupon not to be, in this respect, what he is; which is in effect, to wish him not to be at all? The same thing which the heart of the Fool says, No God; i.e. This would please such a one to the very heart. And doth this import no enmity? Can this stand with delight in him?

Are you not disaffected to him, whom not being able to accuse of falshood, whom having the greatest imaginable assurances of the impossibility he should deceive, you will yet by no means be induced to trust? Consider, What doth your trust in God signifie, more than the sound of the Name? Doth it quiet your heart, in reference to any affairs you pretend to commit to him? Doth it purifie it, and check your ill inclinations, in any thing wherein they should be countermanded upon the credit of his Word? What doth his Testimony concerning the future things you have not seen, weigh with you, to the altering of your course, and rendering it such as may comport and square with the belief of such things? Would not the word of an ordinary man, premonishing you of any advantage or danger which you have no other knowledg of, be of more value with you? Constant suspicion of any one, without cause p. 242or pretence, most certainly argues radicated enmity. You love him not whom you cannot trust.

Do you love him whom upon all occasions you most causlesly displease; whose offence you reckon nothing of? Is that ingenuous towards a Friend, or dutiful towards a Father or a Lord? How do you, in this, carry towards the blessed God? Are you wont to displease your selves to please him, or cross your own will to do his? Do you take delight in him whom you make no difficulty to vex; whose known declared pleasure, though you confess him greater, wiser, and more righteous than your self, you have no more regard to, wherein it crosses your own inclination, than you would have to that of your Child, your Slave, or a Fool?

Have you any thing to except against that measure and character of loyal affection to your Redeemer and Lord, If ye love me, keep my commandments; Ye are my friends, if ye do whatsoever I command you; This is the love of God, that we keep his commandments? Do you not disobey the known will of God in your ordinary practice without regret? Do not you know it to be his will, That you strive to enter in at the strait gate; That you seek first the Kingdom of Heaven; That you keep your heart with all diligence; That you deny your self, crucifie the flesh, be temperate, just, merciful, patient? Do you aim at obeying him in these things? Can you say, Lord, for thy sake I refrain the things to which my p. 243heart inclines? Hath his prohibition any restraining force upon your hearts? Do you not allow your self to be licentious, earthly, vain, proud, wrathful, revengeful, though you know it will offend him? And is this your love to him, or delight in him?

Do you bear goodwill to him whose reproach and dishonour you are not concern'd for, yea, whom you stick not to dishonour and reproach? whose interest among men hath no place in your thoughts, whose friends are none of yours, whose enemies are your friends, whose favour you care not for, nor regret his frowns, whose Worship is a burthen to you, (that you had rather do any thing than pray to him), and his fellowship an undesired thing? Make an estimate by these things of the temper of your hearts towards God; and consider whether it bespeak delight in him, or not rather habitual aversion and enmity.

It may be you will admit these things seem to carry somewhat of conviction with them: But they concern many that are taken for godly persons and lovers of God, as well as they do you. And it may be many such may take themselves for godly persons and lovers of God, and be mistaken as well as you; And what will that mend your cause? If these things will prove a person one that hath no delight in God, they equally prove it as to you and others, which will make nothing to your advantage.

But if they who have sincere love to God, p. 244are in a degree peccant against the Laws of such love (as that they are, they will hear in due time), They are more ready to accuse themselves than other men; They abhor themselves, that they do not more entirely delight in God, and repent in dust and ashes: It better becomes you, to imitate their repentance, than glory in their sinful weakness; which while they patronize not themselves, you should not think it can afford a valuable patronage unto you. When did you check and contend with your own hearts upon these accounts, as they are wont to do? And if these things, in a degree found with them, prove their delight in God imperfect, their prevailing contraries will prove it (however) sincere. And if you will not now understand the difference, God grant you may not hereafter at a more costly rate, between the imperfection and the total want of his love; between having your heart and Soul imperfectly alive towards God and perfectly dead.

You may further say, God is out of your sight, and therefore how can it be expected you should find a sensible delight in him?

But is he out of the sight of your minds? If he be, what would you infer, That then you cannot delight in him at all, and therefore that you do not; the thing that you are charg'd with all this while. But he is out of sight by the high excellency of his Being; for which reason he should be delighted in the more, i.e. with a deeper delight, though not p. 245like that you take in the things of sense: And he hath been so beyond all things, notwithstanding his abode in that light which is inaccessible. This therefore is confession without excuse; and would never be offered as an excuse by any, but those that are lost in flesh and sense, have forgot they have reasonable Souls, and had rather be numbred with Brutes than Men; As if there were not many things you have not seen with the eyes of flesh, more excellent than those you have! Or as if you had no other faculty than eyes of flesh to see with! Which since you have, and the depravation thereof is vicious and sinful, as your not-delighting in God (the matter of fact) seems to be yeilded, and so you quit your first Post; It will thence appear, that it cannot but be sinful too. And since at that you seem to make a stand (as at your next Post), either thinking to deny or extenuate the evil of it, our Expostulation must follow you thither, and be aimed,

2. To evince to you the greatness and horridness of that sin. Suffer your selves therefore to be reasoned with to this purpose, and consider,

First, That you have somewhat of delectation in your Natures, i.e. you have the power naturally inherent in you, of taking delight in one thing or other. You have such a thing as love about you. Are not some things grateful and agreeable to you, in which you can and do take complacency? Therefore herein an act is not enjoined you which is incompetent p. 246to your Natures, or simply impossible to you.

Next then, Do you not know, your delight or love ought to be placed on some good or other that is known to you; and among things that you know to be good, proportionably to the goodness which you find in them, and supreamly on the best?

Further, Do you not acknowledg the blessed God to be the best and most excellent Good? as being the first and fountain-Good, the fullest and most comprehensive, the purest and altogether unmixed, the most immutable and permanent Good? How plain and certain is this? How manifestly impossible is it, if there were not such a Good, that otherwise any thing else should ever have been good, or been at all? Is not this as sure and evident as any thing your senses could inform you of? Whence is the glorious excellency of this great Creation, the beauty, loveliness, pleasantness of any Creature? Must not all that, and infinitely more, be originally in the great Creator of all. This, if you consider, you cannot but see and own.

While then your own hearts tell you, you delight not in God, Do not your Consciences begin to accuse and judg you, that you deal not righteously in this matter? And ought it not to fill your Souls with horror, when you consider, you take no delight in the best and sovereign Good? Yea, when you look into your disaffected hearts and find, that you not only do not delight in God, but you cannot; p. 247and not for the want of the natural power, but a right inclination? Should you not with astonishment bethink your selves, every one for himself, what is this that's befal'n me; I am convinced, this is the best Good, every way most worthy of my highest delight and love, and yet my heart savours it not! You can have no pretence to say, That because your heart is disinclin'd, therefore you are excused, for you only do not what through an invincible disinclination you apprehend you cannot do. But you should bethink your self, What a wretch am I, that am so ill-inclin'd? For is not any one more wicked according as he is more strongly inclin'd to wickedness and averse to what is good? But how vincible or invincible your disinclination is, you do not yet know, not having yet made due trial. That you cannot of your selves overcome, it is out of question: But have you tried what help might be got from Heaven, in the use of Gods own prescribed means? If that course bring you in no help, then may you understand how much you have provoked the Lord. For though he have promised, that for such as turn at his reproof, he will pour out his Spirit to them; Prov. 1.Prov 1yet they who when he calls refuse, and when he stretches out his hand regard not, but set at naught all his counsel, &c. may call and not be answered, may seek him early and not find him. And that wickedness may somewhat be estimated by this effect, that thus it makes the Spirit of Grace retire, that free, benign, merciful Spirit, the Author p. 248of all love, sweetness and goodness, become to a forlorn soul a resolved stranger. If you are so given up, you have first given up your selves; You have wilfully cast him out of your thoughts, and hardened your own hearts against him, who was the Spring of your Life and Being, and in whom is all your Hope: And whether this malignity of your hearts shall ever finally be overcome or no (as you have no cause to despair but it may be overcome, if apprehending your life to lie upon it, you wait and strive, and pray and cry, as your case requires); Yet do you not see it to be a fearful pitch of malignity? and so much the worse and more vicious by how much it is more hardly overcome?

That we may here be a little more particular▪ Consider,

1. How tumultuous and disorderly a thing this your disaffection is? You are here to consider its direct tendency, its natural aptitude or what it doth of it self, and in its own nature lead and tend to. If you may withdraw your delight and love from God, then so may all other men as well: Therefore now view the thing it self in the common nature of it; And so, Is not aversion to delight in God a manifest contrariety to the order of things? A turning all upside down? A shattering and breaking asunder the bond between rational appetite and the First Good? A disjointing and unhinging of the best and noblest part of Gods Creation from its station and rest, its proper basis and center? How fearful a rupture doth it make! p. 249How violent and destructive a dislocation! If you could break in pieces the orderly contexture of the whole universe within it self, reduce the frame of nature to utmost confusion, rout all the ranks and orders of creatures, tear asunder the Heavens, and dissolve the compacted body of the earth, mingle Heaven and Earth together, and resolve the World into a meer heap; you had not done so great a spoil, as in breaking the primary and supream tie and bond between the Creature and his Maker; Yea, between the Creator of all things and his more noble and excellent Creature. All the relations, aptitudes and inclinations of the Creatures to one another, are but inferior and subordinate to those between the Creatures and their common Author and Lord: And here the corruption of the best cannot but be worst of all. Again,

2. What an unnatural wickedness is it! To hate thy own original! To disaffect the most bountiful Author of thy Life and Being! What wouldst thou say to it if thy own Son did hate the very sight of thee, and abhor thy presence and converse? especially if thou never gave him the least cause? If thou hast been always kind and indulgent, full of paternal affection towards him, Wouldst thou not think him a vile miscreant? and reckon the Earth too good to bear him? But how little, and in how low a capacity, didst thou contribute to his being in comparison of what the great God did to thine? How little of natural excellency hast thou above him (it may p. 250be in many things besides this unhappy temper he much excels thee) when thou knowest, in thy Maker is infinite excellency beyond what thou canst pretend unto? And what cause canst thou pretend of disaffection towards him? Many good works hath he done for thee; For which of these dost thou hate him? Whereby hath he ever disoblig'd thee? With how sweet and gentle allurements hath he sought to win thy heart? And is it not most vilely unnatural that thy spirit should be so sullenly averse to him, who is pleased to be stiled the Father of Spirits? And in which respect it may fitly be said to thee, Dost thou thus requite the Lord, O foolish Creature,Deut. 32.Deut 32 and unwise? Is not he thy Father—? If thou didst hate thy own self (in a sense besides that wherein it is thy duty, and in which kind thou hast, as thy case is, a just and dreadful cause of self-abhorrence); If thou didst hate thy very life and being, and wer't laying daily plots of self-destruction, thou wer't not so wickedly unnatural. He is more intimate to thee than thou art to thy self. That natural love which thou owest to thy self, and the nature from whence it springs, is of him, and ought to be subordinate to him; And by a superior Law of Nature, thy very life if he actually require it, ought to be sacrific'd and laid down for his sake: Thy hatred towards him, therefore is more prodigiously unnatural, than if it were most directly and implacably bent against thy self.

And yet also in hating him thou dost most p. 251mischievously hate thy self too; and all that thou dost, by the instinct of that vile temper of heart towards him thou dost it against thy own life and soul. Thou cuttest thy self off from him who is thy life; and art laying a train for the blowing up of thy eternal Hope. All that hate him love death. Prov. 8.Prov 8Further,

3. It is the most comprehensive wickedness, and which entirely contains all other in it. For as the Law of Love is the universal and summary Law, comprehending all Duty, and even as it enjoins love to God (for love to men ought to be resolved into that, and must be for his sake); so must disaffection to God be comprehensive of all sin, whereinto every thing of it resolves it self. Dost thou not see then how thou cancellest and nullifiest the obligation of all Laws, while thou hast no delight in God? offerest violence to the very knot and juncture, wherein they all meet and are infolded together? Not to delight in God therefore, What can it be but the very top of Rebellion? What will thy sobriety, thy justice, thy charity signifie, if thou hadst these to glory in, while thou art habitually disaffected to thy God? Let men value thee for these, to whom thereby thou shewest some respect; But shall he, who in the mean time knows thou bearest none to him?

4. It is a most reproachful contemptuous wickedness! To him, I mean, whom it most directly offends against! Carries it not in it most horrid contumely and indignity to the most high God? It is a practical denial of all those p. 252excellencies in him, that render and recommend him the most worthy object of our delight; it is more than saying, He is not good, holy, wise, just and true. Things may on the sudden be said that are not deliberately thought, and may be retracted the next breath; but a mans stated, constant course and way signifies the apprehension it proceeds from to be fixed, and that it is the setled habitual sense of his Soul.

Yea, and since, as hath been said, Thou delightest in other things whilst thou delightest not in him; It plainly imports it to be the constant sense of thy very heart, that those things are better than He. What is it then that hath thy delight and love? Whereon is thy heart set? Commune with thy self. Dost thou not tremble, when thou findest this to be thy very case, that thou may'st truly say, I can delight in creatures, but not in God; can take pleasure in my friend, but none in him; I must confess it to be the temper of my heart, that I love my Father, Mother, Son or Daughter more than Christ: Is it not then to be concluded from his own express word,Mat. 10. 13Matt 10:13 that thou art not worthy of him,Luk. 14. 26Luke 14:26 and canst be none of his Disciple? Nay, may'st thou not moreover truly say, that thou lovest this base impure earth more than God? That thou takest more delight in thy companions in wickedness; canst more solace thy self with a drunkard on the Ale-bench, with a lascivious wanton, with a prophane scoffer at godliness, than with the blessed God? That thou canst allow p. 253thy self to riot with the luxurious, and eat and drink with the drunken, and not only do such things, but take pleasure in them that do them, yea and thy self take pleasure to commit iniquity; but in the glorious holy God thou canst take no pleasure! Then wouldst thou be content to carry the plain sense of thy heart written on thy forehead, and proclaim it to all the world, as thy resolved practical judgment, That thou accountest thy Friends, thy Relations, this vile and vanishing World, thy wicked Associates, thine own impure lusts, better than God? And dost thou not yet see the horrid vileness of thy own heart in all this? Art thou yet an harmless innocent creature, an honest well-meaning man for all this?

Yea, wil't thou not see, that thine heart goes against thy Conscience all this while? That thou disaffectest him in whom thou knowest thou shouldst delight? That the temper of thy Spirit is a continual affront to thy profession, through the perfidious falshood and vanity whereof, thou dost but cover hatred with lying lips? Is not that an odious thing which thou so seekest to hide; and which, though thou art not loath to be guilty of it, thou art so very unwilling should be known?

And since thou art so very loath it should be known, How canst thou hold up thy head before that eye that is as a flame of fire, that searches thy heart and tries thy reins, that observes thy wayward spirit, and p. 254sees with how obstinate an aversion thou declinest his acquaintance and converse? Wilt thou stand before the glorious Majesty of Heaven and Earth, who knows thy disaffected heart, and say, it is but a small transgression thou hast been guilty of, in not loving him and making him thy delight? Dost thou think this will pass for a little offence in the solemn judgment of the great day that is drawing on? Or will thy heart indure, or thy hands be strong, when the secrets of all hearts shall be laid open, thou shalt stand convicted before his Tribunal in the sight of Angels and Men, of having born all thy days a false disloyal heart, full of malignity and ill-will to thy Soveraign Lord, whom thou wast so many ways obliged to serve and cleave to with delight and love?

When the difference shall be visibly put between those that delighted in God and them that never did, and thou shalt be markt out for one of them that didst in heart depart from him all thy days, and be thereupon abandon'd to the society of that horrid accursed crew, in whom only thou didst delight: Surely thou wilt not then say, thy transgression was small.

2. But we are also to expostulate with another sort; who, though they are not altogether unacquainted with this heavenly exercise of delighting in God, yet too much disuse it, and apply not themselves to it (as who do?) with that constancy and intention of Soul as the matter requires. And p. 255these we are to put upon the consideration of such evils, as either are included in this neglect, or are ally'd unto it (and do therefore accompany and aggravate the natural evil of it), as either causing it, or being caused by it. And,

1. Those whom we now intend are to bethink themselves, what evil is included in their neglect of this part of holy Practice. And you are to judg of the evil of it by its disagreement with such known and usual measures, as whereto our practice should be sutable, and which in reason and justice it is to be estimated and censured by; as for instance, The Divine Law, Conscience, Experience, Obligation by kindness, Stipulation, Relation, Profession, Tendency of the new Nature, Dictates of Gods Spirit, The course and drift of his design; with all which it will be found to have very ill accord.

1. How directly opposite is it to the Law of God! Not only to his express written Precept, but to that immutable eternal Law which arises from our very Natures refer'd unto his! The obligingness or binding force whereof, doth not so much stand in this, That the thing to be done is such as whereto our Natures were originally inclin'd, (which yet is of great weight, they having been thus inclin'd and determin'd by our Maker himself, so that our inclination was in this case expressive of his Will); but (which is indeed the very reason of that, for we must conceive the Divine Wisdom in the blessed God to p. 256conduct all the determinations of His Will), the natural unchangeable congruity of the thing it self. And therefore as to the things whose constant fitness would render them matter of Duty to us at all times, it was provided, inclinations sutable to them should be planted in our Natures from the beginning: But things that were to be matter of Duty but for a time, having only a present fitness unto some present juncture or state of affairs, it was sufficient that the Divine Pleasure should be signified about them in some way more sutable to their occasional and temporary use, and that might not so certainly extend to all men and times.

That great Law of Love to God (which comprehends this of delighting in him) is you may be sure of that former sort, it being impossible there should be a reasonable Creature in being, but it will immediately and always be his Duty to love God supreamly and above all things; yea, that you must know is the most fundamental of all such Laws. And therefore, when because original impressions were become so obscure and illegible in our Natures, it became necessary there should be a new and more express Edition of them in Gods written Word:

This is placed in the very front of them, Thou shalt have no other gods before me; Which signifies only the having of a God in Name and no more, if it doth not signifie loving him before all other. Wherefore when our Saviour was to tell which was the first and p. 257great Commandment, he gives it thus, Thou shalt love the Lord thy God, Mat. 22.Matt 22with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind. The thing enjoined by this Law is most substantial, the life and soul of all other Duty, and without which all that we can do besides is but meer shadow; for whatsoever we are enjoined to do else, we must understand enjoined to be done out of love to God, as the principle whence it must proceed; and not proceeding thence, the moral goodness of it vanishes as a beam cut off from the Sun. For on this (with the other which is like unto it, and which also hangs upon this) hang all the Law and the Prophets. And what durst thou who knowest God, or rather art known of him, neglect so great and substantial a Duty? This is not like the command of wearing fringe on the borders of the garment, or of not wearing a garment of linnen and woollen; wherein sure they whom it concerned should have been very undutiful to have disobeyed: But it is the very greatest among the great things of the Law; A Duty upon which all Duty depends, even for life and breath! Should not this have obtain'd in thy practice, that ought to run through and animate all the rest? Or was it fit it should ly dead and bound up in the habitual principle, and not go forth (or very rarely) into act and exercise? Or didst thou do thy duty herein, by being only inclin'd to do it? Or would not the inclination, if it were right, infer (or otherwise is it like to last long without) sutable p. 228exercise? Isa. 55. 1, 2, 3.Isa 55:1Isa 55:2Isa 55:3Why was so express a Law neglected, so often enjoined (or the practice mentioned with approbation,Psa. 44. 19.Ps 44:19 or the neglect of it animadverted upon with abhorrence,Job 27. 10. ch. 34. 9.Job 27:10 in the very terms, or in terms evidently enough of the same import) in the Sacred Volume?Isa. 58. 14.Isa 58:14 How could you turn over the leaves of that Book and not often meet with such words, Rejoice in the Lord ye righteous; Psal. 33. 1. 97. 12.Ps 33:1Ps 33:97Ps 33:12Rejoice in the Lord, and again I say to you rejoice, &c. Should not so frequent inculcations of the same thing have been answered by the frequency and continuedness of your practice of it?Phil. 3. 1. 4. 4.Phil 3:1Phil 3:4 Or was it enough now and then, as it were casually and by chance, to hit upon the doing of what is so momentous a part of your Religion, and ought to be the business of your life? Ought it not to cut your heart to find your self convicted herein of a disobedient omission? And when the great God exacts that stated homage from you, A frequent, practical, explicite, recognition and owning of him as the supream delight, the great solace, repose and rest of your Souls, that you have been so little aw'd with the apprehension of his authority and right in this case? When he hath mercifully chosen, to make that the matter of his command and claim, wherein your own advantage, satisfaction and content doth so entirely consist? That your practice is herein disagreeable to a Law, speaks it sinful; that it transgresses so great a Law, highly aggravates your sin: A Law so important, upon which so much depends, so express and plain, legible p. 259in the very nature of things, and in reference whereto, the very excellency of the object would suffice to be a Law to you, and dictate your duty, if no command had been otherwise given in the case. Surely the neglect of such a Law cannot have been without great transgression.

2. Your own Conscience you will acknowledg ought to be a Rule to you, when it manifestly agrees with that former Rule, The supream and Royal Law. Do you not find your selves herein to have offended against that? It may be your sleeping Conscience did not find your self to offend: But do you not find your self to have offended it, now beginning to awake? This is not a doubtful and disputable matter, (perhaps your minding such matters too much, hath hindered you in this), surely you will not make a scruple of it, a difficult case of Conscience, Whether you should take the Lord of Heaven and Earth for your God? Whether you should chuse him for your portion, seek rest in him, and place upon him your delight and love? And if in so plain a case your Conscience hath not exprest it self offended, you have offended against it, in letting it sleep so securely, and not stirring it up to its proper office and work. And know, that sinning against the light of ones own Conscience, doth not stand only in going against the actual deliberated thoughts which we have had, but also in walking contrary to our habitual knowledg, and the thoughts and apprehensions which thence we might and p. 260should actually have had; Inadvertency and disregard of known duty, is the most usual way of sinning against Conscience. And besides, Have you not in this often gone against the repeated checks of your own Consciences! Bethink your selves, Have you not in your prayers intermingled frequent confessions of your cold love to God, and that you have taken so little delight in him? And were those only customary forms with you, and words of course? Surely (though it might not be urgently enough) your Consciences did at such times accuse you. And let that be a dreadful thing in your eyes, to continue a course which, if you consider, you cannot but condemn. And,

3. Ought not your Experience to have been instructive to you; as it commonly is to men in other matters? Have you not in this neglect run counter to such instruction? By this means you are suppos'd to have known the sweetness, as by that last mentioned, the equity and fitness of delight in God. Have not those been your best hours, wherein you could freely solace your selves in him? was not one of them better than a thousand otherwise spent! Did you never find it good for you, Psal. 73.Ps 73in this way, to draw nigh to God? and hereupon pronounce them blessed whom he did chuse, Psal. 65.Ps 65and cause to approach unto him? And where is that blessedness of which ye spake? Have ye forgotten, that ye ever thus tasted how gracious the Lord was? And 'tis like, you have by your taste found it also an evil p. 261thing and bitter to depart from him. Methinks you should reckon it a great increase of your sin to have gone against your own sense, when especially, your superior rule might give you assurance it did not deceive you. And doth it not expresly oblige you to follow its guidance,Heb 5. 14.Heb 5:14 while it puts the character of perfect, or of being come to full age, upon them, who by reason of use (or accustomedness) have senses exercised to discern between Good and Evil?

4. And what will you say to the great obligations which the love and kindness of God have laid upon you? Will you not esteem your selves to have been thereby bound to place your love and delight on him? Could you decline doing so without putting a slight upon his love, who is infinite in what he is, and who is love? was not his love enough to deserve yours? The love of a God, that of a silly worm! Were you not oblig'd to love him back again, who was so much before-hand with you in the matter of love? 1 John 4.1 John 4To love him who had loved you first? The first love is Therefore perfectly free; the latter is thereby certainly obliged and become bounden duty. How variously and with how mighty demonstration hath that love exprest and evidence't it self? It hath not glanc't at you, but rested on you, and setled in delight. He hath so stood affected towards the people of his choice, and put a name on them on purpose to signifie his delight in them.Isa. 62. 4.Isa 62:4 He rejoices over them with joy, Zeph. 3.Zeph 3and rests in his love to them. Psal. 149.Ps 149The Lord taketh pleasure in his people. p. 262His delights have from of old been with the Sons of men. Prov. 8.Prov 8Could He delight in such as you, and cannot you in him? Be amazed at this! How mean an Object had he for his delight! How glorious and enamouring a one have you! Excellency and Love in conjunction! whereas in you were met Deformity and ill-will! He hath loved you so as to remit to you much. To give to you and for you a great deal more, Himself and the Son of his delights. He then (thou shouldst recount) did invite thee to delight in him who hath always sought thy good, done strange things to effect it, takes pleasure in thy prosperity and exercises loving kindness towards thee with delight? Who contrived thy Happiness; wrought out thy Peace at the expence of Blood, even his own; Taught thee the way of Life, cared for thee all thy days, hath supplied thy wants, born thy burdens, eas'd thy griefs, wip't thy tears. And if now he say to thee; After all this couldst thou take no pleasure in me? Will not that confound and shame thee? He hath exprest his love by his so earnest (and at last successful) endeavours to gain thine. By this, that he hath seemed to put a value on it; and that he desisted not till in some degree he had won it: Whereupon there hath been an acquaintance, a friendship, some intimacies between him and thee, according as sovereign Majesty hath vouchsafed to descend, and advance sinful dust. And how disingenuous, unbecoming and unsutable to all this is thy strangeness and distance afterwards! It p. 263it is more unworthy to cast out of your hearts than not to have admitted such a guest.

5. How contrary is this omission to what by solemn vow and astipulation you have bound your selves to? It hath graciously pleased the blessed God in his transactions with men to contrive his Laws into the form of a Covenant, wherein upon terms, he binds himself to them, expecting (what he obtains from such as become his own) their restipulation. Wonderful grace! that he should article with his Creatures, and capitulate with the work of his own hands! And whereas his first and great Law (and which virtually being submitted to comprehends our obedience to all the rest) is as hath been noted, Thou shalt have no other Gods before me; This also he gives forth often, as the sum and abridgment of his Covenant, That he will be our God, and we shall be his people. Now this you have consented to; and therein bound your selves, (as you have heard our Saviour expounds the first and great Commandment) To love him with all your soul, &c. And how well doth your neglect to delight in him agree and consist with this? What, love him with all your soul in whom you can rarely find your selves to take any pleasure? Surely your hearts will now misgive and admit a conviction you have not dealt truly (as well as not kindly) in this. What, not to keep Faith with the righteous God! To deceive a Deceiver some would think not intolerable. But what pretence can there be for such dealing p. 264with the God of Truth? You have vow'd to him, What think you of this drawing back? Such trifling with him; the great and terrible God who keeps Covenant and Mercy for ever! How unbecoming is it! to dally with him as you would with an uncertain whiffling man? To be off and on, to say and unsay, that he shall be your God, and that he shall not, (for how is he your God if you delight not in him?) imports little of that solemn gravity and stayedness which becomes a transaction with the most High God. He takes no pleasure in fools; Wherefore pay that which you have vowed.Eccl. 5.Eccl 5

6. Nor doth it better agree with your Relation to him, which arises from your Covenant. Thence he becomes yours and you his: I entred into Covenant with thee, and thou becamest mine; and the Covenant binding on both parts, the relation is mutual; so that thereby also he becomes yours: It is a most near, represented therefore by the nearest among men, even the conjugal, relation; Therefore how full is that Song of Songs of expressions importing mutual delights sutable thereto! And what a bondage (as well as incongruity) were that relation without delight? Have you repented your Choice? If not, Why take you not pleasure? Why do you not rejoice and glory in it, even as he professes to do over you? If he should repent, In what case were you? Not to take pleasure, in God! Your own God! How strangely uncouth is it? You are not to consider him as a stranger, an unrelated one. If he were such to you his own excellencies challenge to be p. 265beheld with delight; But you are to reckon and say of him, This is my Beloved, and this is my Friend, &c. I am his and he is mine. And how ill do such words become the mouth that utters them not from the abundance of the heart! even from an heart abounding and overflowing with Love and Joy!

7. And how doth the temper of your heart and your practice, while you take not actual, ordinary delight in God, clash and jar with your profession? For admit you do not then make an express verbal profession of actual delight in God at such times when you find it not, yet you still avow your selves, and would be accounted and lookt upon as related to him: And the just challenges of that relation are not any way answered, but by a course of ordinary actual delight. So much your Profession manifestly imports. Whilst you profess the Lord to be your God, you profess him to be your supream delight. And how is he so, when you seldom have a delightful thought of him, or look to him with any pleasure? and the temper of your Spirit towards him is usually strange and shie? And bethink your selves, What would you then be esteemed? such as care not for him, as value him not? Would you willingly be taken for such in all those long intervals wherein your actual delight in him is wholly discontinued? Would you not be ashamed the disposition of your heart towards him at such times should be known? Do you not desire to be better thought of? What is there then at the p. 266bottom, and under the covert of your yet continued profession at such times, but falsehood? A correspondent affection there is not. Is not your very profession then meer dissimulation and a lie? A concealment and disguise of an heart inwardly bad and naught? but which only comforts it self that it is not known; that is all day long full of earth and vanity, and wholly taken up with either the contentments, delights and hopes, or the cares, fears, and discontents that do naturally arise from these vile mean Objects, and so are of a kind as mean and vile as they; Only makes a shift to lie hid all the while, and lurk under the appearance such a one hath put on of a Lover of God, and one that above all things delights in him. But is this honest dealing? or was this indeed all that was this while to be got of God, the credit of being thought his?

Yet it may be you will somewhat relieve your selves, by saying you suppose for all this your profession was not altogether false. For you hope there was still a Principle in you by which your heart was habitually directed towards God, and whereby his Interest did still live and was maintained in you, notwithstanding your many and long diversions from him. And while your Profession did signifie that, it signified some real thing, and so was not a false and lying Profession.

But to this I say, Was this all that your Profession was in it self apt, and by you designed to signifie? Surely it was apt and intended to signifie more than habitual inclination. It carried p. 267the appearance of such actings Godward as were sutable to your having him for your God; And you would it's likely have been loth it should have been otherwise understood. And surely whatsoever it said or imported more than the Truth was false.

And again, Can you be confident that so much as you suppose, was true? Are you sure of this, that because you have sometimes found some motions of heart towards God, it is therefore habitually inclin'd to him, when it very rarely puts forth it self in any sutable acts, and for the most part works quite another way? Whereby are Habits to be known but by the frequency of their acts? Do not you know there are many half-inclinations and workings of heart with some complacency God-ward that prove abortive and come to nothing, as that of the stony ground, and that of Heb. 6. 4. do more than intimate. Surely your hope and safety more depend upon your repentance, your return and closer adherence to God thereupon, than the supposition your heart is in the main sound and right amidst those more notable declinings from him.

But we will admit your supposition true (which the consideration of the persons we are now dealing with and the Design of this present Piece of our Discourse requires) and take it for granted, that amidst this your great neglect, you have notwithstanding, a Principle, a new and holy nature in you, whose tendency is Godward: Whereupon we further say then, p. 2688. And doth not your unaccustomedness to this blessed exercise resist the Tendency of that new nature? And so your practice while your hearts run a quite contrary course (for they are not doing nothing while they are not in this delightful way working towards God) doth not only offend against your profession which it in great part belies; but against that vital Principle also, which is in you; and so your very excuse aggravates your sin. Is there indeed such a Principle in you? And whither tends it? Is it not from God? And doth it not then naturally aim at him and tend towards him? Being upon both those accounts (as well as that it resembles him, and is his living Image) called a participation of the Divine Nature? Yea, doth it not tend to delight in him? For it tends to him as the Souls last end and rest. What good Principle can you have in you God ward if you have not Love to him? And the property of that is to work towards him by desire, that it may rest in him by delight. Have you Faith in God? That works by this Love. Faith is that great power in the Holy Soul by which it acts from God as a Principle; Love is that by which it acts towards him as an End; By that it draws from him, by this it moves to him, and rests in him. The same holy gracious nature (dependently on its great Author and Cause) inclining it both to this motion and rest; and to the former, in order to the latter: So by the work of the new Creature is the Soul formed purposely for blessedness in God and devotedness to him; its aspirations, its motions, its p. 269very pulse, breath, tend and beat this way. But you apply not your Souls to delight in God. You bend your minds and hearts another way; What are you doing then? You are striving against your own life; you are mortifying all good inclinations towards God, stifling and stopping the breath that your panting heart would send forth to him; you are busily crucifying the new creature, instead of the body of sin. There is somewhat in you that would work towards God, and you suffer it not; And is that well? That Divine thing, born of God, of heavenly descent, that hath so much in it of sacredness by its extraction and parentage, you fear not to do violence to!

If indeed such a thing (as you seem to hope) be in you; at sometime or other you may perceive which way it beats and tends. The Soul in which it hath place is byass'd by it Godward; and though often it is not discernible, it sometimes shews its inclination. Other men, and meaner creatures, sleep sometimes, and then their most rooted dispositions appear not; when they are awake they bewray them, and let them be seen in their actions, motions and pursuits. The renewed Soul hath its sleeping intervals too, and what propensions it hath towards God is little discernible, (and yet even then it sometimes dreams of him, at least between sleeping and waking;Cant. 5.Song 5 I sleep, but my heart waketh, it is the voice of my beloved): But if you seriously commune with your selves in your more wakeful p. 270seasons, you may perceive what your hearts seek and crave; some such sense as this may be read in them,Isa. 26.Isa 26 The desire of our Souls is unto thy Name, O Lord, and to the remembrance of thee. One thing have I desired, that will I seek after, Psal. 27.Ps 27to behold the beauty (the delight, as the word signifies) of the Lord. And when you observe this discovered inclination, you may see what it is that in your too wonted course you repress and strive against. That Divine Birth calls for sutable nutriment, more tastes how gracious the Lord is. You will have it feed upon ashes, upon wind and vanity; or (although it had the best Parent, it hath so ill a Nurse) when it asks bread, you give it a stone, and let it be stung by a Scorpion: And the injury strikes higher than at it alone, even (as is obvious) at the very Author of this Divine Production; Which therefore we add as a further aggravation of this evil, viz.

9. That it's an offence against the Spirit of Grace, whose dictates are herein slighted and opposed; for surely with the tendencies of the new creature he concurs: It is maintained by him as well as produced, continually depends on him as to its being, properties, and all its operations. Nothing therefore can be cross to the inclination of a renewed Soul, as such, which is not more principally so to the Holy Ghost himself. And particularly the disposing of the Soul unto delight is most expresly ascribed to him;Rom. 14. 17.Rom 14:17 that very disposition being it self joy in the Holy Ghost: And we find it numbered p. 271among the fruits of the Spirit. Gal. 5. 22.Gal 5:22You may possibly be less apprehensive of your sin in this, because you find him not dictating to you with that discernible Majesty, Authority and Glory that you may think agreeable to so great an Agent. But you must know, he applies himself to us in a way much imitating that of nature. And as in reference to the conservation of our natural beings, we are assured the First Cause co-operates with Inferiour Causes (for we live, move,Act. 17.Acts 17 and have our being in him), though the Divine influence is not communicated to this purpose with any sensible glory, or so distinguishably, that we can discern what influence is from the superiour Cause and what from subordinate; our reason and faith certainly assure us of what our sense cannot reach in this matter: So it is here also, The Divine Spirit accommodates himself very much to the same way of working with our own, and acts us sutably to our own Natures. And though by very sensible tokens we cannot always tell which be the motions that proceed from him; yet Faith teaches us from his Word, to ascribe to him whatever spiritual good we find in our selves; inasmuch as we are not of our selves sufficient to think a good thought. And if by that Word we judg of the various motions that stir in us, we may discern which are good and which not; and so may know what to ascribe to the Spirit, and what not. Whereas therefore that Word commands us to delight in God, if we find any motion p. 272in our hearts tending that way, we are presently to own the finger of God, and the touch of his Holy Spirit therein. And what have you found no such motions excited, no thoughts cast in that have had this aspect and tendency, which your indulged carnality and aversion have represt and counterwrought? Herein you have grieved and quencht the Spirit.

And if it have not over-born you into what you should have understood to have been your duty, but have upon your untractableness retired and withdrawn from you; Do not therefore make the less reckoning of the matter, but the more rather; this carries more in it of awful consideration to you, and smarter rebuke that He desisted. You must consider him as a free Agent, and who works to will and to do of his good pleasure. His influence is retractable, and when it is retracted, you ought in this case to reckon it signifies a resentment of your undutiful and regardless carriage towards him. And ought you not to smite upon the thigh then, and say, What have I done? You have striven against the Spirit of the most High God; You have resisted him in the exeeution of his Office, when you were committed to his Conduct and Government; you have fal'n out and quarrelled with your merciful Guide, and slighted at once both his Authority and Love. This could be no small offence. And you are also to consider, that when such a Province was assigned him in reference to you, and such as you; and the great p. 273God set his Spirit on work about you. It was with a special end and design, being the determination of most wise Counsel.

And how highly doth this increase the offence? That,

10. You have herein directly obstructed the course and progress of that Design; That could be no other than the magnifying of his grace in your conduct to blessedness. This is that whereon he hath been intent; and he hath made his Design herein so visible, that they that run might read what it was. The very overture to you of placing your delights on him speaks its end; 'Tis that whereby he should be most highly acknowledg'd and you blessed both at once. His known design you ought to have reckoned did prescribe to you, and give you a Law; 'Tis a part of civility towards even an ordinary man, not to cross his Design which I know him earnestly to intend, when it tends no way to my prejudice, or any mans; Yea, to do so would in common interpretation, besides rudeness, argue ill nature and a mischievous disposition. Much more would duty and just observance towards a superior challenge so much, as not to counterwork him, and awe a well-temper'd spirit into subjection and compliance; but a stiff reluctancy to the great and known Design of the blessed God, meant so directly to our own advantage, speaks so very bad a temper▪ hath in it such a complication of peevish wilfulness, of undutifulness and ingratitude to him, of negligence and disregard of our selves, p. 274that it must want a name to express it.

And now do you see what evil the neglect of delighting in God (accompanied as it cannot but be with the having your hearts otherwise ingaged and vainly busie) doth include and carry in it? Will you pause a while and deliberate upon it? Do but make your just and sober estimate by the things that have been mentioned.

Measure it by Gods Law, and it imports manifest disobedience in a matter of highest consequence; by the judgment of your own conscience, and it imports much boldness against light in a very plain case; by your experience, and it speaks an uninstructible stupidity, or a very heedless forgetful spirit; by the obligation laid upon you, by the kindness of this very counsel and offer (besides many other ways), and it hath in it great ingratitude and insensibleness of the greatest love; by your Covenant, and it imports treachery; by your Relation, much incongruity and undecency; by your Profession, falshood and hypocrisie; by the tendency of the new nature in you, unnatural violence; by the Dictates of Gods Spirit, great untractableness; by his known declared Design in this matter, a most undutiful disrespect to him, with a most wretched carelesness of your selves, as to your nearest and most important concern.

One would think it needless to say more; But why should we balk any thing that so obviously occurs, tending to set forth the exceeding great sinfulness of this sin? Therefore p. 275know, that besides its great faultiness in it self,

Much also cannot but be derived into it IIfrom its very faulty causes. It supposes and argues great evils that flow into it, and from which it hath its rise.

1. Great blindness and ignorance of God; For is it possible any should have known and not have loved him? or have beheld his glory and not have been delighted therewith? and that with such delight and love as should have held a setled seat and residence in them.

And can your ignorance of God be excusable or innocent?1 Cor. 15▪1 Cor 15 The Apostles words are too applicable; Some have not the knowledg of God, I speak it to your shame. Do you pretend to him, and know him not? Worship him so oft, and worship you know not what? Had such opportunity of knowing him, and yet be ignorant?Psal. 76. 1. 2.Ps 76:1Ps 76:2 at least it would be thought, In Judah is God known, and that his Name were great in Israel, where he hath had his Tabernacle and dwelling place. Here one would think his Altar should not bear the same Inscription as at Athens, Acts 17.Acts 17To the unknown God. How express hath his discovery of himself been to you! and how amiable! What was there in it not delectable? or in respect whereof he hath not appeared altogether lovely? as it were composed of delights? You have had opportunity to behold him clad with the Garments of Salvation and Praise; And as he is in Christ, in that alluring posture,2 Cor. 5.2 Cor 5 reconciling the world to himself, p. 276wherein all his Attributes have visibly comply'd to the reconciling design; His boundless fulness of life and love not obstructed by any of them, from flowing out in rich and liberal communications. If you had not excluded that glorious pleasant light wherein he is so to be beheld, you would have beheld what had won your hearts fully, and bound them to him in everlasting delight and love. And have you not reason to be ashamed you have not known him better, and to better purpose? Alienation from the life of God proceeds from blindness of heart, Eph. 4. 18.Eph 4:18i. e. a chosen affected voluntary blindness. Or if your knowledg of him be not little.

2. Your little delight in him argues much unmindfulness of him; At least that you have not minded him duly, and according to what you have known. It might here be seasonable to suggest to you, how likely it is, that several ways your great faultiness in the matter of thinking of God may have contributed to the withholding of your delight from him. Consider therefore,

1. Have not your thoughts of him been slight and transient? Have they not been overly superficial thoughts? casual only, and such as have dropt into your minds as it were by chance, fluid and roving, fixed neither upon him nor into your hearts? Too much resembling what is said of the wicked man,Psal. 10.Ps 10 God is not in all his thoughts; He hath not been amidst them. Your thoughts have not united upon him, he hath not been situated and p. 277centred in them. Was not this the case? You bestowed upon him it may be now and then an hasty passant glance, the careless cast of a wandering eye; and was this likely to beget an abiding permanent delight? Have you been wont to compose your selves designedly and on purpose to think of him, so as your thoughts might be said to have been directed towards him by the desire and inclining bent of your heart; according to that,Isa. 26. 8.Isa 26:8 The desire of our Soul is towards thy name, and to the remembrance of thee? Whence it is that 'tis represented as the usual posture of them whom he reckons among his Jewels, and for whom the book of remembrance was written,Mal. 3.Mal 3 that they thought on his name. A thing that they might be known by, and distinguisht from other men; (wherefore it is observable, that their remembrance of him, was thought worth the remembring, and to be transmitted into records, never to be forgotten). The evil of your not-delighting in God, hath a great accession from your negligent thinking of him.

2. Have not your thoughts of Him been low and mean, such as have imported light esteem? Compare them with those admiring thoughts,Deut. 32. 15.Deut 32:15 Who is like unto thee, O Lord, among the gods! Who is like thee, glorious in holiness! O Lord, our Lord, Psal. 8.Ps 8how excellent is thy name in all the earth! How unlike have yours been to such thoughts? Bethink your selves, how deeply culpable you have made your neglect to delight in God, by your unworthy thoughts, p. 278by which you have detracted so unspeakably from the Divine excellency! Hence you have more to account for than meerly not-delighting in God, a rendering him such to your selves, as if he were not worthy to be delighted in. How ought this to shake your hearts!

3. Have they not been hard thoughts; full of censure, and misjudging of his Nature, Counsels, Ways and Works? Have there not been perverse reasonings, with dislike of his Methods of Government over men in this present state? As if he had too little kindness for such as you would have him favour, and too much for others; Judging his love and hatred by false measures? This seems to be much the evil unto which the Injunction of delight in God is here opposed in this Psalm; and whence it may be estimated, how directly that militates against this, and prevailing, excludes it. Perhaps you have delighted so little in God, because ye have thought (the thing that is so wearisom to him), Every one that doth evil is good in the sight of the Lord, Mal. 2. 17.Mal 2:17and he delighteth in them; and have said in your hearts, Where is the God of Judgment.

Or have you not been more peccant in your apprehensions of his rules and resolutions for the disposing of men as to their eternal states? Have you not disbelieved the revelation he hath given of his Nature, and express declarations of his mind and purpose touching these matters? Was it not enough for you to have known his gracious propensions p. 279towards returning sinners, that desire him again for their God, and willingly accept the grace, and submit themselves to the conduct and government of his Son? Should not this have allured and won your hearts to him, and made you, with humble thankful admiration of his grace, resign and yeild your selves to be his for ever? Have you not measured your apprehensions of him by the suggestions and misgivings of your guilty jealous hearts; or by your experienc'd animosity, and the implacableness of your own spirits towards such as have offended you; as if he could forgive no more than you are dispos'd to do? Have you not oppos'd your own imaginations of him to his express testifications of himself, that He is Love; Slow to anger, and of great mercy, &c. And that as the heavens are high above the earth, so are his ways above your ways, and his thoughts above your thoughts? Have you not (against his plain word) thought him irreconcilable, and averse to the accepting of any atonement for you? prescribed and set bounds to him, and thought your sin greater than could be forgiven? And if hereupon you have not delighted in him, and have found all ingenuous affection towards him stifled within you, as your not-delighting in him, was a foul evil; the more-sinful injurious cause (denying the infinite goodness of his Nature, and giving the lye to his Word) hath made it beyond all expression worse. And further at least consider,

p. 2804. Have not your thoughts of God been few? Is not the meditation of him with you an unwonted thing? The Psalmist, resolving to mind him much, Psal. 104. 33.Ps 104:33To praise and sing to him as long as he lived, and while he had any being, Doth as it were prophesie to himself, that his meditation of him should be sweet. Frequent (right) thoughts of God, will surely be pleasant delightful thoughts: But your little delight in God too plainly argues, you have minded him but seldom. And how full of guilt is your not-delighting in God upon this account? How cheap is the expence of a thought? What, that so much should not be done in order to the delightful rest of your Soul in God!

3. It supposes much carnality, a prone inclination and addictedness to this earth and the things of it; And thereupon argues in you a very mean abject spirit. While you can take no pleasure (or do take so little) in God, is there nothing else wherein you take pleasure? And what is it? God hath in this matter no other rival than this world. 'Tis its friendship that is enmity to him; something or other of it,Jam. 4. 4.Jas 4:4 The lust of the flesh, the lust of the eye, or the pride of life prevails far, while the love of the Father hath so little place in you. 1 Joh. 2▪1 John 2Whither are you sunk? into how low and vile a temper of spirit, when you can take pleasure in so base things, rather than in the blessed God; and quit so high and pure delights for mire and dirt? What hath thus carnalized your minds, that you favour p. 281only the things of the flesh, and Divine things are tasteless and without relish?

Nor are you to think more favourably of your case, if you take little actual complacency in the world also; probably it is because you have little of it to delight in; it may be you are more acquainted with the cares of it than the delights; or your desire after it is much larger than your possession. 'Tis all one for that. But what are your hearts most apt to delight in? or, what is most agreeable to your temper? 'Tis the same thing, what earthly affection predominates in you, while the temper of your spirit is earthly; and it is thereby held off from God. Your not-having actual earthly delights to put in the balance against heavenly, is only by accident. But all your cares, desires and hopes of that vile kind, would turn into as vile delights, if you had your wills. In the mean time, you are the more excuseless, and your sin is the grosser, That even the cares and troubles of this world are of more value with you than delight in God. How far are you from that temper,Psal. 73.Ps 73 Whom have I in heaven but thee, and whom do I desire on earth besides thee?

4. And how sad an argument is it, of downright aversion and disaffectedness to God, in a great degree at least yet remaining! Whence can your not-delighting in him proceed, but from this, as its most immediate cause? What could hinder you, if your heart were inclin'd? Are you not astonisht, to behold this as the state of your case, That you delight not in p. 282him, because your heart is against it; that is, from flat enmity.

And what doth more naturally import enmity to any thing, than to turn off from it, as not being able to take pleasure in it. So God expresses his detestation of Apostates, If any man draw back, Heb. 10.Heb 10my Soul shall have no pleasure in him. And his contempt of Jechoniah is signified by the like manner of speaking. Do you not tremble to think that this should be the temper of your spirit towards God, and that your estimate of him, as if he were a despised broken Idol, Jer. 22.Jer 22and as mean a thing, as a vessel wherein is no pleasure? Reckon then thus with your self; As your case stands, and things do lye between God and you, your little delight in God can have no more favourable account given of it, nor be resolved into any gentler or milder cause than enmity.

And if this seem to you not to be a cause, but to be coincident, and fall in with it, so much the worse. By how much less this enmity hath of antecedency to your neglect, or the more it seems the same with it, so much the more it discovers the evil of the thing it self. For by what worse name can we call any thing than enmity to God? But we speak of your habitual temper, as that which is the cause of your actual neglect. And since you have a discovery of God as the most delectable Object, cannot pretend there is a better, have leave and free permission to place your delight on him, yea are earnestly invited and p. 283prest to it, 'Tis plain, nothing else is in your way to hinder you; Therefore you delight not in him, because your heart only is averse.

3. We also might insist further to shew IIIthe evils that ensue and follow upon this neglect: Such I mean, as do not follow casually and by accident, but which have a very inward connexion with it, and are its most natural consequents; being some way caused by it, or which it doth very directly tend to beget.

And yet these we need not be solicitously curious to distinguish, as things of a kind altogether diverse from those last mentioned under the foregoing head.

For it is very apparent, the same things may both cause little delight in God, and be caused thereby; As a person may therefore not delight in God because he knows him not, and may therefore be the less apt to entertain the knowledg of him, because he hath no delight in him. And the case is the same as to the other things spoken of as causes of this omission, i. e. that it and they may be mutual causes of one another. But it however equally serves the design of aggravating the evil of not taking frequent actual delight in God, that hereby sin grows, whether in the same or in different kinds; There is still an increase of sin, though but of the same sort that was in being before.

You ought to consider then, As you take so little delight in God from that very bad p. 284cause, that you have not entertained the right knowledg of him, when you had so great opportunity to get much of it, which makes your matter very ill; Do you not also find that by your withholding your selves from delighting in him, you have still less disposition to seek his more inward acquaintance? And doth not that make your matter much worse? If you already know somewhat of him, you yet know but in part; your object is infinite, and this knowledg so excellent, that you cannot fully attain to it, there is still more to be known.

Now therefore if you did delight much in God, Psal. 63.Ps 63would you not be pressing hard after him? would you not be following on to know him? Hos. 6.Hos 6And then would his goings forth be prepared before you as the morning, and he would be still visiting you with fresh and increasing light; whereupon your pleasure would be renewed and increased by every fresh view, and consequently your progress would be from sight to sight, and from pleasure to pleasure; whereas now this wheel stands still, or you are going back into darkness and desolation. Have you not much the more to answer for upon this account?

The like may be said as to the rest. The irrectitude and great faultiness of your thoughts of God, though that contribute not a little to your not-delighting in him, yet also, if you did delight in him more, would not your thoughts of him be more deeply serious, more highly raised? Would you not be very unapt p. 285to take up injurious hard thoughts of him? Would not his thoughts (once become precious to you) be also numerous, or innumerable rather,Psal. 139.Ps 139 as the sands of the Sea-shore? Would not your earthly temper, your strangeness and aversness to him, vanish and wear off, if you were more exercised in actual delightful converses with him? Therefore the permanency and increase of those mentioned evils, and that they have got such setled rooting in you, is all to be charged upon your not-applying your selves to more frequent actual delight in God.

Besides what may further follow hereupon, The languishment and decays of your inward man; The difficulty you find to trust in God, when you are reduc'd to straits, (as who would commit his concernments to one he doth not love?); Your impatience of adverse and cross emergencies, that may often befal to you; Your aptness to vexation or despondency; The easie victory a temptation hath over you, as surely he is sooner drawn away from God, or into sin against him, who delights not in him); Your less-usefulness in your place and station; Your want of courage, resolution, zeal for God, (which are best maintained by delight and the relishes of a sweet complacency taken in him); Your sluggishness in a course of well-doing; The sense of a toilsom heavy labour in Religion, that it begets you weariness without rest, (whence you rather affect a rest from it, than in it and by it); and lastly, Your continual bondage by the fear of death, (which one would not p. 286dread, apprehending it only a removal into his presence in whom I delight). All these things (which might have been distinctly insisted on, and more expresly accommodated to the present purpose, but that I would not be over-tedious, and that somewhere else some or other of them may fall again in our way) do bring in great and weighty additions to the evil and guiltiness of this sin, and much tend to lay load upon it, to fill up its measure, even unto pressing down and running over. For how just is it, to impute to it what it naturally causes, and lay its own impure and viperous births at its own door?

And though this Discourse have been drawn out to a greater length than was intended, it will not be lost labour, if by all that hath been said, any that fear God shall be brought to apprehend more of the odiousness of this sin; and the self-indulgent thought be banisht far from them, that this is either an indifferent matter, or at least (if it be somewhat a careless) 'tis one of their more harmless inadvertencies and omissions.

Which good effect, if through the blessing of God it may accomplish, there will be the less need unto such to read on, but take their nearer way to the immediate present practice of this great Duty. And because also it is to be hoped, that the evil of this neglect once apprehended, will prompt and quicken serious and considering persons to set upon the enjoined Duty; It will be the less necessary to enlarge much in that other p. 287kind of Discourse, which we now come to, viz.

2. Invitation thereunto. Wherein yet we IIhave reason to fear it may be too needful to place some part of our present labour. For though in matters of an infinitely inferior nature and concernment, any practice is readily undertaken that is once represented reasonable and gainful; In such a business as this, an hundred difficulties are imagined; we stand as persons that cannot find their hands; and all the question is, (even if there be some inclination to it, or conviction at least it should be done), But how shall we go about it? We are apt to grope as in the dark, even at noon-day, and cannot find the door or way that leads into a practice wherein there is so much both of pleasantness and duty. Therefore as the case is, the Invitation to this exercise ought, if it were possible, to be a kind of manuduction; and it is needful we be not only called and prest, but even led into it. This then we are to endeavour, the giving of some plain Prescriptions, that may put us into an easie and direct way of falling expeditely upon this delightful work.

And here it must be considered, that all (as hath been said) are not in an equal disposition to it; Some are more averse, others less, but all too much; Therefore are we to begin as low as their case may require, who are less dispos'd; and so proceeding on in our course, somewhat may fall in more sutable to them who are in some disposition to it, p. 288but do yet need (as who do not?) some help and furtherance in order thereto.

First therefore, It is necessary, that you do deliberately and resolvedly design the thing it self. Propose to your selves delighting in God as a business unto which you will designedly and with stedfast purpose apply your whole Soul. Content not your selves with light roving thoughts about it, which many have about divers matters which they never think fit to engage themselves in. Determine the matter fully in your own heart, and say, Many projects I have tried in my time, sundry things I have turn'd my mind unto, to little purpose, I will now, see what there is of delight to be found in God. The sloth and aversion of a backward heart must be overcome by resolution; and that resolution be well-weighed, deliberately taken up, deeply fixed, that it may last and overcome. And why should you not be resolved in this point? Is this a matter always to be waved? Know you another way to be happy? Are you yet to learn, that a reasonable Soul needs the fulness of God to make it happy, and that there is no other God but one? Can there be any dispute or doubt in the case, when there is but one thing to be done, besides yeilding ones self to be miserable for ever? And what need of that, while yet there is one way to avoid it? Surely, that there is but one, is better than if there were a thousand. You need not now be lnog in chusing; nor do you need to deliberate, becauseof any doubt in the case, but p. 289that you may more fully comprehend in your own thoughts that there is none, and that your resolution may hereupon grow the more peremptory, and secure from the danger of any change.

To talk of any difficulty in the matter, is a strange impertinency; for who would oppose difficulty to necessity? or alledg, the thing is hard which must be done? Or must it be done, and never be attempted? or attempted, and not be resolved upon? You have nothing to do to read further, who will not digest this first counsel, and here settle your resolution, I will apply my self to a course of delight in God. If this appear not reasonable to you, despair that any thing will that follows. 'Tis foolish trifling, to look upon such writings that profess their design, and have it in their fronts, that they are meant for helps unto Christian practice, only with an humour of seeing what a man can say. And if ever you will be in earnest, you must return to this point; And will but waste time to no purpose, if you will not now set down your resolution; that is, That you will seek an happiness for your Soul, (too long already neglected!); an happiness that may satisfie and last; And (where only it is to be found) in the blessed God; and in him by setting your selves to delight in him; since nothing can make you happy wherein you delight not. And that you will make use of what you further read, according as you find it conducing, and apt to serve your purpose herein. Then next,

p. 2902. Consider your present state Godward. Must you, do you see you must come to this point, of having your delight in God? In what posture then are your affairs towards him? How do things stand between him and you? You do well know, you were unacceptable to him, and his enemy; and that his Justice and holy Nature obliged him to hold you as such, (though he never gave you ground to think him implacable). Can you delight in an enemy? who (as matters in that case stand) must be apprehended ready to avenge himself on you, and as having whet his glittering Sword, and made the Arrow ready upon the string, directed against your very heart? Apprehend this to have been your case, and most deservedly, That you were an impure hateful wretch, deformed and loathsom, one that could yeild the holy God no matter of delight, full of enmity and contrariety to him, and in whom he could not but find much cause of most just hatred. Remember you were one of his revolted creatures, under his most deserved wrath and curse. Know at how vast a distance you were from delighting in him, or a state that could admit of it. Consider, Is this still your case? And do not rashly think it altered; or that you have nothing to do, but out of hand to rush upon the business of delighting in God.

3. Yet do not think it unalterable. Do not conclude it as a determined and undoubted thing, that matters can never be taken p. 291up between God and you, or you become sutable and acceptable to him. Look not upon your vile wicked heart as unalterably wicked; nor upon him therefore as an irreconcilable enemy. Account he waits for your turning to him, as being inclin'd to friendship with you; Otherwise would vengeance have suffered you so long to live? Have you not been long at his mercy? Hath he not spared you, when it was in his power to crush you at pleasure? Do not think therefore (what you have no pretence for) that he hath a destructive design upon you, and will accept of no atonement.

4. Acquaint your self with the way and terms upon which his Gospel declares him reconcilable; that is, that he will never be reconciled to you while you remain wicked, nor for your own sake, become you never so good. That a more costly sacrifice than you can either procure or be, must expiate your guilt, and make your peace. If this matter could have been effected in a less expensive way, the Son of God had not (as you know he was) been designed himself, and made that sacrifice; nor a work have been undertaken by him that might as well have been done by common hands. And since he submitted and undertook as he did, reckon with your self, how highly just it is, that the entire honour of so merciful condescension, and so great a performance, be wholly ascribed to him. But withal know, he shed his blood, not in kindness to your sin, but to you: And p. 292that his design was at once to procure the death of that, and your life; That you need his Spirit as well as his Blood; that to recommend and reconcile you to his Holiness, as well as this to his vindictive Justice; That as you expect ever to experience and taste the delights of that communion, whereinto he calls you, you must not only have the blood of Christ to cleanse you from all sin, 1 Joh. 17.but must also walk in the light, as he is in the light; That an entire resignation, a betrusting and subjecting of your self to the mercy and governing power of the Redeemer, is necessary to the setting of things right between God and you; In whom only you may both accept God and be accepted of him; That he must be the center of union between God and you; and that union the ground of all delightful intercourse.

5. Make request to him, that he would draw you into that union with his Son; unto whom none can come,Joh. 6.John 6 but who are drawn by himself.

Do not dream and slumber in this business; but know your All depends on it. Consider the exigency of your case. Do you find your heart sluggish and indispos'd to any such transaction with God and Christ? Doth it decline and draw back? Know, it herein doth but act its own nature, and do as it is, or like it self; Therefore stir up your self,Isa. 27.Isa 27 to take hold of his strength; in which way, if you have mind to be at peace, you shall make peace. Cry to him earnestly, Draw a p. 293poor wretch out of darkness and death, that must otherwise be at eternal distance from thee, and be miserable for ever. Join me to him who will bring me to thee, and make me one for ever with thee. Hereupon,

6. Accepting Jesus Christ as thy Saviour and thy Lord; accept in him, with all humble reverence, thankfulness and admiration of divine mercy and goodness, the blessed God to be thy God; surrendring and yeilding up thy self entirely and fully to be his for ever. Do this unfainedly, and with great solemnity; And let it be to thee for an everlasting memorial! Record it as a memorable day, wherein thou didst go out of thy self, and all finite, narrow, limited good, and pass into union with the eternal, immense, incomprehensible and all-comprehending good, and enter upon it as thine own! And what, wilt thou delight in a God that is not thine? Canst thou be content to look wistly on him, as one unrelated and a stranger? Apprehend (and bless God that this is the state of the case), that in this way he offers himself most freely to thee. It were astonishing to think of purchasing so great a good! the matter were not to be offered at. But how transporting is it, that nothing but acceptance and resignation should be needful to make thee one with the great God, and make his fulness thine! Therefore make haste to do this, and be not hasty in doing it. Defer not, but do it with great seriousness, deliberation, and fulness of consent; considering p. 294you are about to enter into an everlasting Covenant not to to be forgotten; and doing a thing never to be again undone.

Now if herein your heart be sincere, and there be a real and vital exercise of your very Soul in this transaction with God in Christ, so as that you truly take him for your God, preferring him in your estimation and choice above all things, and giving up your self absolutely and without reservation to him as his, to be governed and disposed of by him in all things at his pleasure; You are hereby brought into that state that doth admit of delighting in him.

And what remains to be said, will concern you as persons in a nearer capacity, and who have a kind of fundamental aptitude and disposedness of heart unto this spiritual work; And will therefore be directed to you, considered according to that supposition.

Only it is withal to be considered, in the case of many such, that they were arrived hither long ago, and been (as was before supposed) hereupon somewhat exercised and vers'd in this piece of holy practice, have had many pleasant turns with God, and tasted often the delights of his converse: But have discontinued their course, and are grown strange to him who was their delight; have suffered themselves by insensible degrees to be drawn and tempted away from him; or there hath been some grosser and more violent rupture, by which they have broken p. 295themselves off. It will be requisite to say somewhat more peculiar to these, (for the reducing of them again even to this unitive point); After which, what shall ensue, may in common concern them, and all that are arrived so far, together.

For such therefore whose case this is, it will surely both become and concern you to take this course:

1. Make a stand, and bethink your selves; Can you justifie your carriage towards him whom you have taken to be your God? Can you approve your own way? Was this all that you oblig'd your selves unto in the day of your solemn Treaty with him; Only to take on you the Name of a Relation to him, and so (excepting that you would now and then complement him in some piece of external heartless homage) take leave till you meet again with him in another world? And that in the mean time this present world, or your carnal self (to be gratified and served out of it) should really be your God, and He only bear the name? Was this indeed your meaning? Or if it was, did you deal sincerely in that Treaty? Or can you think it was his meaning, and that he would expect no more from you? Can you allow your selves so to interpret his Covenant, and give this as the summary account of the tenor of it? How would you then expound it to nothing! And make a meer trifle of it! And make your Religion a fitter service for an inanimate sensless Idol, than the living and p. 296true God; Do you not yet know what the Name of God imports? Can he be a God to you that is not acknowledg'd by you as your very best, the universal, and absolutely all-comprehending good? But if you apprehend there was really more in the matter; and that you have been altogether faulty in this thing. Then,

2. Represent to your selves as fully as you can the greatness of the fault. What have you made God an unnecessary thing to you, while the Creature, your very Idols, lying vanities, were thought necessary? And these were the things upon which you thought fit to set your hearts! Which you have loved, which you have served, after which you have walked, Jer. 8. 2.Jer 8:2which you have sought, and whom you have worshipt! (The heap of expressions wherewith it seem'd meet to the Spirit of God to set out the profuse lavishness of Idolatrous affection). Think how monstrous this is! Revolve in your own minds the several aggravations of your sinful neglect before mentioned; and labour to feel the weight of them upon your own spirits; Think what time you have lost from pleasant delightful walking with God! What damage you have done your selves! How far you might have attained! How much you are cast behind in your preparations for a blessed Eternity! What wrong you have done him, whom you took for the God of your life, to whom you vowed your hearts and souls! How little kindly and truly you have dealt with him!

p. 2973. Return to him with weeping and supplication. Open your selves freely to him. Let him hear you bemoaning your selves, pour out your Souls to him, in large acknowledgments and confessions of your guiltiness; which, while you keep silence, will consume your bones and waste you to nothing. Remember whence you are fal'n, Rev. 2.Rev 2and repent and do your first works. Till then, He hath this against you, that you have left your first love. And consider, Is it not a grievous thing to you? Doth it not pain your hearts, that your Lord and Redeemer should have somewhat against you (as it were laid up, noted, and put on record, kept in store, and (as himself remarkably expresses it,Deut. 32.Deut 32 (sealed up among his treasures); somewhat that sticks with him, and which he bears in mind, and hath lying in his heart against you? Is this a small thing with you? when that must be apprehended to be his sense (and suppose him saying to you) I remember the kindness of thy youth, Jer. 2.Jer 2the love of thine espousals—And now since those former days, What iniquity hast thou found in me, that thou art gone far from me, and hast walked after vanity, and art become vain? How confounding a thing were it, if he should say, as sometime to others in a case resembling yours (and why should you not take it as equally belonging to you)? O my people, Mic. 6. 3.Mic 6:3What have I done unto thee? and wherein have I wearied thee? testifie against me: And while the case admits such sharp and cutting rebuke, and that it is the matter of rebuke (not rebuke it self abstracted from the matter, i. e. p. 298if it were causless) that should smart or wound; How becoming is it! and sutable to the case, to cast down a wounded bleeding heart before the Lord, and be abased in the dust at the footstool of his Mercy-seat! And though your sin be great and hainous;

4. Yet apprehend you are before a Mercy-Seat; That there is forgiveness with him that he may be feared. How would this apprehension promote the humiliation which the case requires! A sullen despondency that excludes hope of mercy hardens the heart; continues the sinful comfortless distance: Therefore apply your selves to him; seek his Pardon in the Blood of the Redeemer; know you need it, and that it is only upon such terms to be obtained.

Yet also take heed lest any diminishing thoughts of the evil of your sin return, and make you neglect the thing, or wave the known stated way of remission. We are apt to look upon crimes whereby men are immediately offended, (and which therefore are of worse reputation among men), as robbery, murder, &c. as very horrid. This is a matter that lies immediately between Spirit and Spirit; the God of the Spirits of all flesh and your Spirit. You have had a solemn transaction with him, and have dealt falsly: And though the matter were secret between God and you, Is it the less evil in it self for that? If you had dealt unworthily, and used base treachery towards a friend, in a matter only known to him and your self, Would you not p. 299when you have reflected, blush to see his face, till matters be composed betwixt you? And is there another way of having them composed, and of restoring delightful friendly converse, than by your seeking his Pardon, and his granting it? Could you have the confidence to put your self upon conversing with him as at former times, without such a preface? Or were it not great immodesty and impudence to offer at it? But that when this hath been the case between the blessed God and you, and you now come with deep resentments, and serious unfeigned acknowledgments of your most offensive neglects of him, to seek forgiveness at his hand, he should be easie and facile to forgive; How should this melt you down before him! And this is what his own word obliges you to apprehend and believe of him.Jer. 3. 12.Jer 3:12 These words He hath required to be proclaimed to you; Return you back-sliding ones, and I will not cause mine anger to fall upon you; for I am merciful, saith the Lord, and I will not keep anger for ever. v. 13.Only acknowledg your iniquity, that you have transgressed against the Lord your God, and have scattered your ways to the strangers under every green tree (your offence hath been Idolatry as well as theirs); Turn, O backsliding Children, saith the Lord; for I am married unto you—

What heart would not break and bleed at this overture! You can be recovered to no capacity of delighting in God, as heretofore, till you sensibly feel the need of great forgiveness, and have a disposition of heart inwardly p. 300to relish the sweetness and pleasantness of it; Till those words do agree with the sense of your hearts, and you can (as in a transport) cry out, O the blessedness of the man (as the expression imports) whose iniquity is forgiven, Psal. 32. 1.Ps 32:1and whose sin is covered! &c. And now when you are come thus far, if the temper of your Spirit be right even in this, there will be in conjunction with the desire, hope and value of forgiveness, at least an equal dread of such future strangenesses and breaches between God and you: And that will be very natural to you, which I next add as further advice;

5. Most earnestly seek and crave a better and more fixed temper of spirit; More fully determined and bent Godward; That your heart may be directed into the love of God; 2 Thes. 3. 5.2 Thess 3:5That the spirit of love, power, and a sound mind may bear rule in you. Be intent upon the recovery of that healthy soundness, which wheresoever it hath place, will with a certain steady power, and a strong inclining bent of love, carry your heart toward God. And take heed lest you be satisfied in the expectation and hope of forgiveness, as to your former neglects of God, without this.

There is a manifest prejudice daily accrewing to the Christian name and profession, by the unequal estimation which that part of the Doctrine of Christ hath, that concerns the work of his Spirit upon us, regeneration, the new creature, repentance, and an holy life; in comparison of that which concerns his performances p. 301and acquisitions for us, expiation of sin, satisfaction of Divine Justice, forgiveness and acceptance with God. How sweet ravishing transporting Doctrines, and how pure Gospel are these latter accounted by many, who esteem the former cold, sapless, unpleasant notions! Thence comes Christian Religion to look with so distorted a face and aspect, as if it suffered a convulsion, that hath altered and disguised it unto that degree, that it is hardly to be known; being made to seem as if it imported only a design to rescue some persons from Divine Wrath and Justice, without ever giving them that disposition of heart which is necessary both to their serving of God and their blessedness in him. This is not to be imputed so much to the misrepresentation made of it by them, whose business it hath been to instruct others, (though of them too many may have been very faulty in almost suppressing or insisting less, or very little, upon Doctrines of the former strain, while the stream of their Discourses hath mostly run upon the other); for it must be acknowledged, that by very many in our age, the absolute necessity of the great heart-change hath been both most clearly represented, and as urgently prest as perhaps in most that have gone before. But the matter is plainly to be most attributed to that depravedness of mans nature, whence there is a most unequal and partial reception of the Truth of God; and that which seems (taken apart by it self) to import more of indulgence to sinners is readily catcht at, that p. 302which more directly strikes at the very root of sin, is let pass as if it had never been spoken. And so men make up to themselves a Gospel of this tenor and import, That let the temper of their spirits towards God be what it will, if they rely and rest upon the righteousness of Christ, God will be reconciled to them. And they think they need take no further care. But whatever is said in the Gospel of Christ besides, of the necessity of being born of God, of partaking a Divine nature, of putting off the old man, and putting on the new, &c. is lookt upon as if it had been thrown in by chance, and did signifie nothing. And the other, without this, is thought to be pure Gospel; As if these were impertinent additions and falsifications. But will not such men understand, that the detracting of any thing from the Instrument or Testament of a man, as well as adding thereto, makes it another thing, and none of his act or deed? And so that their pure Gospel, as they call it, is another Gospel, nay (because there cannot be another) no Gospel? Or will they not understand, how simply impossible it is, in the very nature of the thing, that the end should be attained, of bringing men to blessedness, (i. e. to a delightful rest in God), without their having a new nature, an heart inclined and bent toward God, wrought to a conformity and agreement with Gods own holy Nature and Will, unto which the offer and hope of forgiveness by the Blood of Christ is designed to win and form them? For can men be happy p. 303in him in whom they take no delight? or delight in him to whom the very temper of their spirits is habitually unsutable and repugnant? How plain are things to them that are not resolved not to see!